


The Strings That Bind Us

by LizWrites686



Category: K-pop, SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Aging, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-13
Updated: 2018-02-13
Packaged: 2019-03-17 15:45:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13662129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LizWrites686/pseuds/LizWrites686
Summary: Junhui was now old enough to be some of his friends grandfathers, he'd been this way for a while. He knew that he'd had a soulmate before, and that they'd loved with the intensity of a thousand suns, but age had wrecked their bones and laid waste to their skin, ruined their heads.A soulmate Non-Aging and Red-String soulmate!au





	The Strings That Bind Us

It had started years ago.

He got flashes of his past lives and couldn't control them. He would cook something by himself and get flashes of a time when he was cooking and laughing and loving. Junhui was now old enough to be some of his friends grandfathers, he'd been this way for a while. He knew that he'd had a soulmate before, and that they'd loved with the intensity of a thousand suns, but age had wrecked their bones and laid waste to their skin, ruined their heads.

They had passed together- quietly in their sleep, and were found the next day holding each other, just like it was their first night. With all his heart, he wished to meet his other half again. The string around his ankle wasn't formed enough for him to be able to follow it.

At first, when he was younger, the string was just a barely there, but as time passed the red materialized. At 21, the string’s growing paused as well as his aging. It had slowed, and every 5 years, both Jun and the string aged a week. It had been 60 years since that time.

Sometimes Jun wondered what it was like to feel the warmth that came with the sun in the early morning, how it felt to be alive. With the lack of ageing came the lack of anything else, sleep wasn't needed, he only slept so he could forget the loneliness for a few hours. However, on the nights he couldn't sleep because his body just wasn't willing, he was forced to sit there, getting snippets of his last life, the love he once had. The love he was beginning to believe he would never find again. 

That was until he met you.

You weren't his soulmate, he knew that much. But you made him feel, and that was all he could ask for. Your own soulmate had passed a few years ago, before you could even meet them, and you'd felt every second of it. When you'd met junhui, you started to forget what the pain was like.

He was a breath of fresh air and you were drowning, you fell hard and you fell fast. The way the relationship was heading was never going to end well, you both knew that

You stuck by it though, and within a year you moved in together. The fact he didn't age bothered you somewhat but you tried to ignore it. There were so many flaws-- too many for you to work through them. But you were too invested, everything was too much. it took about 6 months of heated arguments and unspoken words for the two of you to realise that this wasn't right, it wasn't the way things were meant to be. You often came home to him crying, “We can't do this anymore Junhui. We just fight and fight and it hurts too much to keep doing this...“

One night, you came home crying yet again, and he stopped making dinner and leaned against the counter, his hands trying to form fists but were stopped by the marble. He looked like he was gonna break through even that, and then he just stopped and exhaled and relaxed. “I'm sorry Junnie i just can't keep doing this.”

With that he moved and walked over to still crying you and hugged you like it was the last time he was ever gonna see you.

“It’s okay, it’s okay don't worry, we can get through this, no matter how the end result is, okay? I love you and that’s not going to change.”

You wrapped your arms around him and cried into his chest.

In the next month, you were moving out into a flat a few streets away, Jun was hesitant to let you go but he knew it was for the best. The fighting was starting to lessen already and you were positive it was just fates way of saying that this wasn't meant to be.

So there you were: all alone in an empty apartment with the pain coming back in waves, crashing over you and pulling you under once again. Junhui tried his best to visit but he didn't know the extent of the pain, how could he, his soulmate hadn't died. 

You had to deal with this alone, you weren't sure if that was more painful than seeing Junhui perfectly fine or not. 

And just like that the next 5 years were up.

Jun had hit the 5 year mark and he didn't know what to do because the string that has been wrapped around his ankle for over 60 years, the red string that he played with at night and felt like sometimes there was someone on the other side. The red string that had caused him so much pain was finally formed. He felt a tug, a pull driving him to follow it and so he resisted. He spent the day trying to stop himself from running away from his friends, from his life and trying to find the other end.

“Dude, you gotta go”

“What do you mean, I'm perfectly fine?”

“You're in a nervous sweat, your legs haven’t stopped bouncing since you got here and your eyes are shifting all over the place.”

“Damn joshua, do you really gotta point out all my flaws like that?”

“You know he's right Jun, you can't keep doing this to yourself, you're gonna end up hurting yourself or worse,” Jun was still for the first time since he walked in.

“Do you think I should? I don't know where it'll take me or how long I’ll be gone...”

“It'll lead you to them Junhui. It'll lead to your soulmate, some people are lucky if they get that at all, and besides,” Josh picked up, “we’ll look after your flat.”

Jun smiled and thanked them before running to his flat and packing a bag with stuff he might need. He didn't know if he would be walking for an hour or a week or a month or a year, he just knew he needed to get to them. There was no plan, no rules other than follow the string. 

It took him 8 months to find the other end. He spent his nights either sleeping in cheap hotels or endlessly walking, barely eating, not that he even needed to.

He was wandering looking down at the string, and muttering endlessly to himself, it was the same phrase over and over: “How long is a piece of string, how long is a piece of string.” Then the reply came,

“As long as you make it.”

In front of him, a foot with a red string attached to it, right in front of Jun. Then a calf, then a knee and thigh, then a torso, and then a face. It was the most familiar and comforting face Jun had ever seen.

“Minghao”

It was the only word jun knew, the only word he's ever truly known, the only word that made  _ sense. _

_ “Hello Junhui” _

Then he was walking and then running and with every step taken, with every inch moved, he could feel his cells re-awakening. He could feel the blood rushing to his cheeks and his ears. He could feel the cold wind rushing past him and sending sharp stabs into his exposed skin, he could  _ feel them. _

Their collision was like a supernova suddenly bursting into existence. He began crying, they both did. They were spinning and the wind was whipping around them, sending the fallen leaves in a flurry around them. When they finally separated, the air was calm and still, and Minghao’s tears were still falling. Even though his muscles ached and groaned at the effort, Jun raised his arms and wiped away the other’s tears.

“Hello again my love.”

Jun finally felt complete.

They stood just staring at each other for a while before deciding to go to the nearby park and talking about how they had been, Minghao also got the flashbacks, different ones than Jun’s: their wedding day, their first anniversary, their first pet. They talked about their lives before this, Minghao wanted to be a dance teacher but wanted to wait till he could feel the burn in his muscles again. Jun himself could feel the burn in his thighs after so long, and knew why Hao would choose that. The park was barely lit up at this time of night, and Hao said that this was when it was most beautiful.

It changed in the blink of an eye.

They couldn't tell anything was wrong at first, there senses were still getting used to everything, and even then they were too concentrated on each other to care.

Their short-lived happiness was interrupted by a mugger with a knife in his hands. Jun’s brain was working overdrive and he only caught the last of the sentence: “....money or I’ll kill you both.”

The younger tried to calm the mugger down, saying he didn't have any money on him, because neither of them did.

It all happened so fast. 

Minghao tried to approach the mugger with his hands up, tried to calm him down. What happened next was a blur to Jun, he couldn't move. Why couldn't he move and do  _ something? _

Hao started to fall, first to his knees, just when he was going to fall onto his back, Jun finally ran forward and caught him. “Minghao? Minghao look at me okay? Just keep looking at me, it'll be okay.” Between broken sobs, he was able to scream out, “Somebody help, someone please!”

He looked back down at his lost love through blurred vision as his heart broke, he looked so scared, “I... I don't want to die Jun.. I don’t want to-” 

His words were cut off by a cough and then a scream as the knife embedded in his chest shifted, “Who said anything about dying love? You're gonna be fine i know it... Someone fucking help for the fucks sake!”

Minghao coughed and groaned again, “You're gonna be fine, okay? Listen to me.”

The words cut deep into juns heart because, even as he was saying them, he could feel the blood freezing. He couldn't feel the cold anymore, he could only feel the boy he loved under his hands. “Hey hear that? It’s the sirens, they're gonna come here and- and help and you're gonna be fine i know it. You've gotta get better soon yeah, gotta go teach dance, gotta go home to marbles? Marbles must be so scared, sooner you get better, the happier the damn cat will be.”

Minghaos hand held Jun’s face gently, “no,”  _ weakly, it was weak, “ _ Jun its okay.”

“No! No it’s not okay, we've only just met, you can't go like this.”

“Jun listen to me,” he managed a weak, comforting smile, “I’m not scared of dying cause I know you’ll be there in the next life, yeah? Yeah. Don’t worry I’ll see you soon.”

“Minghao i swear, nobody is dying you hear me? Minghao? Minghao, look at me? Open your eyes please? Please...”

The flashing blue lights gave the boy an angelic glow and illuminated the blade sticking from him. Jun just held him closer and rocked back and forth.The paramedics approaching looked wary and when they tried to touch him Jun screamed, “NO!! NOBODY TOUCH HIM!! he's fine he's fine hes just-” He looked at minghaos face again and cried even harder, “please.”

He was crying too hard to care that the paramedics slowly pulled Minghao from his arms and started CPR or when they moved him slowly away toward the ambulance, and wrapped a blanket around him. He didn't even notice when they tried to check for injuries and took him pulse and found nothing, all he could see was the paramedics around Minghao, and how they were now taking him into the other ambulance.

A police woman came over and tried to talk to him but with no response, his body was shutting down again. The red string around his ankle had become black and frayed and loose.

The funeral was simple: all Minghao’s close family and friends had attended, and even his mother had managed to leave the nursing home. Jun simply watched from the sidelines, feeling like too much of an outsider to join. 

He returned home to his empty apartment, exactly the way it had been when he left. His friends tried to visit when they heard he came back but to no avail, jun refused to open the door to anyone. It took 5 months for Jun to contact Joshua, and when he arrived at the front door, he was smiling but as soon as he saw Jun’s crying form, his paternal instincts kicked in.

It took 9 months after Minghao for Jun to smile, and another 3 after that for a chuckle to leave his lips. It was a further 6 until he left his flat for the first time to see his friends all together at the regular cafe. Though he tried, Jun was never fully right, never fully  _ whole _ after that incident, and it worsened as the first of his friends began to leave, always with their soulmates just after. How cruel fate was to make him suffer through that, alone and barely living.

A mere 40 years after Minghaos death, the string finally began to grow again. At first it was too faint for Junhui to notice, but when he did, it all happened at once. 

The once frayed and charred edge was now an aggressive red that burned his eyes, and was no longer frayed but formed and begged Jun to follow it into the distance. 

He had told his friend Chan, who had demanded that he followed it as soon as it was ready. It was almost 41 years to the day when the string formed fully again. But this time, he only travelled 5 minutes before he heard someone muttering to themselves, “how long is a piece of string, how long is a piece of string.”

He smiled at the irony and paused in the street, “as long as you make it.”

Tears began to fill his eyes as the figure stilled and looked at the other end of the string.

“ _ Hello Minghao” _


End file.
